This is one in a 2014 guest column series which builds on the one in 2009 where 50+ had written about how science/tech has evolved their hobby/interest.

This time it is Simon Griffiths. Based in Johannesburg, South Africa he has been in the enterprise software industry for 20 years. He works on global product marketing for international ERP vendor, SYSPRO. And on his gauge at home where he has recorded daily rainfall just almost as long.

To most people the word "meteorology" conjures up images of a TV presenter talking about current weather conditions and the forecast for the next few days. That portrays the wrong image of meteorology, it’s meteorology as entertainment rather than the science that it is.

Human societies have tried to forecast the weather probably since they started cultivating crops. The subject of meteorology was begun as far back as 350 BC when Aristotle gave it its name. The history of meteorology is an intriguing subject and .">.">summarized well. There are different branches of the subject – e.g., maritime, agricultural.

My introduction to meteorology was as a subject a university, but it was never something I considered too interesting. My views began to change in my final year when one of my lecturers suggested that there was a research job for a company that was seeding clouds in eastern South Africa. As I had no other employment lined up, I applied for the job, and shortly afterwards, got it. That was in 1979.

The job brought me closer to meteorology than ever before – it was a case of academic discussions becoming practical. I launched weather balloons, tracked and recorded the soundings from the transmitter on the balloons, and got to understand the process of forecasting from the company meteorologist. During the summer rainy season I worked on the weather radar and watched how clouds moved and developed in real-time. I even found it interesting to learn about the intricacies of cloud physics, which had been too theoretical for me before. Within 18 months, I could act like an expert and gauge the distance of a storm just by looking at it.

While I was there, and afterwards, the company was featured in several media reports about its cloud seeding work, unfortunately the only website that still has a valid link is to a BBC TV program called The Rainmaker. The Economist also wrote an article called "Cloudbusting", published on 21st August 1999. There were later academic articles about it, such as a report in the American Meteorological Society journal in September 1996.

It was also where I got my first exposure to computing. The company was very data-oriented – as much as it could be then. Its weather radar was linked to a Data General mini-computer where we could record and store the profile of thunderstorms. A particle-measuring laser probe was added to the wingtip of one of the aircraft to get detailed data on atmospheric particles. From one of the particle scans we could clearly see a snow crystal, which lead me to joke that I had seen snow in summer. I learnt to program there, writing programs in Basic and FORTRAN, as a kind of apprentice to the technical director, an ex-US Navy and NASA engineer. During my time the computer was upgraded, and we got new removable disk drives that could hold a whopping five megabytes of data – a lot in those days.

While I was working there in 1980, I was told about one of the great technological marvels of meteorology, the Cray super-computer at NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) in Boulder, Colorado. This was a machine that cost millions of dollars and could compute calculations at a then incredible rate; and it was housed in a special super-cooled environment. These days, the average smartphone has more computing power than that Cray.

The fact that I was introduced to computers while doing meteorological work should not come as a great surprise. Meteorology and technology have been closely linked in recent decades. Computing power is what it takes to do the mass of complex calculations required for a forecast. The two main elements of forecasting are data from observed measurements (wind, temperature, pressure), and the application of physical laws of the atmosphere. A further complication is that while the atmosphere is governed by the laws of physics, the Earth’s weather is a chaotic, non-linear system – in simple English that means it is highly sensitive to initial conditions, and the output is not proportional to the input. That is why a major challenge has always been making accurate weather forecasts for a reasonable period into the future.

Until the advent of computers, it was practically impossible to do this to any great scale. These days we take it for granted that major weather forecasting services use computers to do their numerical forecasting.

Another revolution has been the use of satellite imagery to back up weather forecasting. Until the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) satellites of the 1970s, we could only observe the atmosphere via land- or sea-based weather stations, and then create synoptic charts as a guide to what the weather was doing. Now we can use both to show what the weather is like. This was recently born out to me when there was a warning of a major cold front approaching South Africa.

Only a few years ago, we got our weather news from the radio, TV or newspapers. Now people have apps on their smartphones like AccuWeather and can get hourly information geo-located to their position.

Despite all the incredible technological advances in the last fifty years, meteorologists can still only forecast with any accuracy for a few days into the future, and are known to get even that wrong. I wonder what advances will happen in the next fifty years.

Another in a 2014 guest column series which builds on the one in 2009 where 50+ had written about how science /tech has evolved their hobby/interest.

This time it is Cindy Jutras, President of Mint Jutras, a firm which analyzes various aspects of the ERP software marketplace. Here she writes how her passion for oriental martial arts and painting is actually an antidote to the technology in her career

They say looks can be deceiving. That’s often the first thought that comes to mind when people I meet in a business setting learn that I am a martial artist. While it is actually not a topic that comes up often, Vinnie discovered this about me recently when we were looking at a mural on the wall of a conference room of a mutual client. I happened to mention I was an artist… a sumi-e artist to be more precise. Sumi is Japanese for “black ink” and the e on the end translates to “painting.” I hold dan (black belt) rank in three different styles of martial arts, and my early years of study focused on the destructive arts (punching and kicking). But my introduction to sumi-e came through my study of Kosho.

Kosho isn’t really a “style” of martial arts, but more a philosophy and an integrated study of natural movement. As such it encompasses many different fields of study, including healing arts, sword and cultural studies like brushwork. My work with the brush began with shodo, which is literally translated as “way of the brush,” but really refers to calligraphy. Kosho’s roots are in Japan, so in the study of shodo we learned to interpret and practiced Kanji characters. After undergoing a major reconstruction of my knee, I found myself drawn more and more to the brush, and being a rather “creative” type this led me to more expressive forms of brush work: sumi-e.

But as you progress in the arts you realize all of these studies are connected. Practicing with the brush improves your sword handling and your empty hand techniques because all are based on the flow of movement. I had found a way to preserve my skills and continue my practice of the arts without being restricted by my age or physical limitations.

So when Vinnie asked me to relate these studies to science and technology, one was easy and one was hard. The science part is easy. Study of movement and the human body is loaded with science and I am fascinated by the connection of seemingly unrelated movement. Yet one of the reasons I am drawn to the way of the brush is because it lets me escape from the technology that dominates my professional life. And it allows me to add some diversity that I can’t even think about allowing in my business, which is researching, writing and speaking about how technology impacts business.

You see, sumi painting is the polar opposite of technology research. This is quite apparent in contrasting western art with eastern art. Western art is about realistically representing the subject. Eastern art is about capturing the essence of it. A sumi painting is less about being an accurate depiction of reality and more about making a suggestion. In my business, I draw on decades of experience, but I must be precise and back up what I write with facts and data. In other words, I need to paint an accurate representation of reality. In my sumi paintings I can capture the spirit of the subject and inspire the imagination of the audience. The four “treasures” of sumi are simple: brush, ink, inkwell and paper. No technology required.

Another in a 2014 guest column series which builds on the one in 2009 where 50+ had written about how science /tech has evolved their hobby/interest.

This time it is Roman Bukary who I have known for over 15 years as a very smart software executive at companies like Netsuite. Here he writes about his awesome passion of pretty dare-devil search and rescue civic work

It’s 5 AM and I find myself in the backwoods of a National Forest with the nearest paved road three hours away. I am dressed in breathable, waterproof gear [an oxymoron but invaluable], base layers, carrying enough communication and navigation gear to launch the next Apollo moon mission, and in my personal pack I am carrying 30 pounds of food, water, and assorted rescue gear.

I’m out here for my hobby, or as my family describes it, my second job. I am a member of a SAR team in the California Region of the Mountain Rescue Association whose motto is to assist “Anytime, Anywhere, in Any Weather.”

When a child a missing, an Alzheimer patient has walked away from their home, a hiker is overdue, or a climber has had an accident, the local, most often volunteer team of SAR professionals get the call and respond to the scene to coordinate a rescue. While people have volunteered to help find their local citizens for decades, perhaps centuries, recent efforts have focused on technology adoption and usage.

Today’s Mountain Rescue Teams owe a debt of gratitude to early 20th Century Swiss, Austrian, and German mountain rescue teams that pioneered many of the techniques we use and in fact used some of the same tools (albeit not quite as high tech). In the US, Mountain Rescue was created after World War II when 10th Mountain Division soldiers and European immigrants organized early rescues in Washington State.

Today, when a person is missing in the woods, the local Sheriff (most of the SAR missions are coordinated by the County’s Law Enforcement) has potential access to: helicopters with FLIRs (forward looking infrared cameras), for water operations potentially a ROV (submersible remotely operated vehicles with side-scanning sonar), and of course the humans who arrive with their gear, their dogs, and their experience.

When I respond to a typical in-county search, I might be carrying a GPS device allowing me to access atomic-clock synchronized signal from the constellation of 24 satellites to pinpoint my position to within a few meters. In addition to the GPS, I carry my smart phone and usually wear a GPS watch (like most SAR people, I am a “belt and suspenders” kind of a guy… although I am pleased to report, not so in my professional lifeJ ).

The watch is sort of fun allowing me to see how many calories I burn on a typical mission but in a pinch can be my back-up GPS device providing me with location coordinates as well as ways to get back to the starting point. In addition I might also carry two different radios – one a digital radio used in my home county that “utilizes 30 frequency pairs in the 480 MHz UHF-T band designated by the Federal Communications Commission (the "FCC") for public safety and public service use by the Members. The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Title 47, Chapter 1, et seq. governs the use of radio spectrum by public agencies.

Our team is fortunate to have the communication gear and expertise to interlink various radios in use around the state and our mobile command post when set-up creates a local WiFi hot spot allowing us to create a network connecting our laptops with printers giving the search management team the ability to have a near-real-time view on ongoing operations.

I am wearing recycled plastic bottles on my body (also known as fleece) and more man-made plastic breathable/waterproof hard-shell, allowing me to stay mostly dry and somewhat warm. Unfortunately for most SAR/MRA teams, we get called-out when the weather is not cooperating so it’s going to be windy, raining, muddy, snowing, freezing, or if we’re really lucky, perhaps all of the above during various times of the mission.

When the mission is not one involving search but rather a high angle technical rescue, we rely on some damn impressive rope and pulley rigging systems… impressive in their manufactured precision and the strength-to-weight ratio. Here are a few examples of some beautiful and practical gear.

Rock Exotica’s “UFO” a multi-point attachment rigging plate is machined from a solid piece of aluminum and has a rated strength of 36kN (able to hold approximately 30-40 humans), the pulleys are similarly machined to tight tolerances and weigh less than 200gm. This sophisticated, light-weight gear is needed to allow us and other similar rescue teams to operate with a safety margin on 10:1 meaning the overall system is capable of handling 10 times the expected load. Finally, the ropes we use are a wonder of modern material science allowing us to operate in rain, snow, or dirt.

We usually carry or have access to over 2,000’ of rope in pre-packed 800’ bags because unlike typical climbers or climbing gyms we run two-rope systems – one for the main and the other for belay (see, another instance of the “belt and suspenders” operation ). We carry titanium litters if we need to rescue people over an edge and frequently rely on artificial high-points to help us get over the edge.

All this gear is fun, looks cool and we spend a lot of time learning how to use it, but the bottom line is that we are a volunteer team and all this gear and much more is designed to help us search, find, and if necessary rescue people who are not having a very good day.

Another in a 2014 guest column series which builds on the one in 2009 where 50+ had written about how science /tech has evolved their hobby/interest.

This time it is Bill Hewitt, someone I have known for over 15 years as an accomplished software executive. His baking skills are even more impressive as he describes below.

I grew up in a home where fresh food was always being prepared. My mother was, and still is, and excellent cook, so I was always comfortable in the kitchen. After one of my companies was sold, I even went to cooking class in New York City to learn the basics of knife skills, sauces, cooking techniques, even how to make the perfect omelet! But one thing that has always frightened me was baking. Bread to be exact. Big, crusty breads that require pre-ferments and solid technique in kneading, forming and baking.

So I was delighted when my wife gave me a baking course as a Christmas gift; I deferred it once because I was “too busy” but she made me go. I finally did spend last week at the King Arthur Flour Baking Education Center. The center, located in picturesque Norwich, VT, is a state of the art facility to train professional bakers. I have to say I was initially intimidated but I was there as a “tourist” baker, learning how to make artisan breads, like baguette, sourdough and croissant at home.

Much of our time was learning the chemistry behind baking and the proper techniques to make high quality artisan bread. As we were all amateurs, our technique of preparing the dough varied, which had the most effect on finished product.

The technology for baking bread has not changed much, but has gotten more precise; scales have replaced measuring spoons, proofing ovens that can duplicate any condition now exist, and ovens that blast freshly inserted bread with a blast of steam are now commonplace. There are also excellent web sources like The Fresh Loaf and mobile apps like the Dough Pro to keep us from going too wrong.

The equipment these days is amazing. For the most part it has removed the areas of the process that are most prone to outside forces, like weather, humidity, the “heavy hand” and oven temperatures.

What tech cannot replace however is the skill of the baker. We compared “mass produced” breads like those baked at semi-fast food restaurants. They tend to be lighter in color, have a finer crumb and less crust, mostly because they are machine made. The process, and product are consistent, but not high quality.

What makes the difference is the bakers feel for the dough; how much hydration and rise it needs, how it is shaped and how long it gets to develop. Like any good business process, the “winners” are often those who understand that a process requires finesse, not just automation, to be the best.

What I do know is that my teenage sons now believe I am a demi-god of sorts for learning the magic of making flaky, buttery croissants. I wish I would get the same response when I implement software applications!

Another in a 2014 guest column series which builds on the one in 2009 where 50+ had written about how science /tech has evolved their hobby/interest.

This time it is Bertrand Dussert, Vice President, HCM Transformation and Thought Leadership for Oracle. In this capacity, he serves as HR transformation and executive advisor to some of Oracle's largest clients. Prior to Oracle, Bertrand was the global leader for HR Shared Services, Recruitment Operations and Workforce Planning for American Express. When not at work, Bertrand is an avid cyclist and Ironman triathlete.

When I’m not working, flying, reading, tweeting, or spending time with family, I can usually be found riding a bike or thinking about Ironman Triathlon (or riding a bike and thinking about technology). Or swimming/running and thinking about how I would rather be cycling…

So what exactly is an Ironman, and why is technology so central to this sport?

Ironman Triathlon is a one-day event that involves swimming 2.4 miles in open water, riding a 112-mile cycling time trial (no drafting), and ‘running’ a full marathon. Given the extraordinary length of the events, leveraging performance data is a critical aspect of racing and training for the distances.

Some of you may have heard of the running ‘wall’ that many hit in a marathon around miles 20-23. In an Ironman, most athletes have already raced for 7 hours before starting the marathon. Even the world’s fastest pros take over 5 hours before starting the marathon. This creates a need to carefully manage pace on race day to avoid ‘bonking’ and ‘blowing up.’

To successfully complete, much less race, an Ironman Triathlon, training is required in swimming, cycling and running. All three sports are balanced, but more time is usually spent on riding in training, as it limits impact damage to joints, builds aerobic capacity well, and is the longest part of any Ironman event. So just what kind of technology do I use in my training?

- Garmin 910Xt: This device that looks like a large watch has amazing data logging capabilities:

Swimming:track swim distance, pace, strokes per lengths, lap times, and distance covered for open water races (it has GPS).

Garmin Connect – this application allows athletes to upload training data, including courses on maps, temps and many many more variables

Strava – this application allows athletes to do much of the same, but also has a built in competition feature with Strava Segments. Once someone has ridden a course segment, others can complete to try to better the time on the same segment (includes a leaderboard, workout logging and many more features)

- Equipment – in addition to software and sensors, the bikes and wetsuits are worth mentioning

Bikes: high end triathlon bikes have frames made of carbon fiber, are wind tunnel tested, have airfoil shaped wheels also made of carbon fiber, and are designed and built to very high standards (think of them as highly engineered vertical land gliders with pedals and wheels)

Indoor Trainer: most of my riding during the week is done in the evenings on an indoor trainer. I use a direct drive bike trainer that provides very realistic feel in the pedaling action.

Wetsuits: modern triathlon wetsuits are capable of improving swim speed by 5-15%, and allow athletes to swim in much colder water than without them.

Many triathletes also train with power meters (a really great way to go). Perhaps the most frequently used technology in Ironman is simply data. Cumulative training loads, meso-cycle tracking, VO2Max, heart rate recovery, lactate threshold measurement…if something can be measured, I guarantee an Ironman triathlete somewhere is using the data to try to get an edge. How can I tell if I’m ‘race ready?’ I find the best indicator involves two measures, combined with feel. If my resting HR is below 50 bpm, my body mass is in the right range, and I feel unstoppable in my training (minimal soreness after 100 mile solo ride, followed by a 3 mile run), I know I’m as ready as I’ll be.

Unlike some other sports, all the training and fitness in the world won’t get you through an Ironman triathlon if you aren’t smart about your race day. For most people, the use of technology and data are critical to managing a great race day. That combination of training, thinking and technology needed to succeed is what makes Ironman so much fun for me. Oh, and there is NO feeling in the world like running down the finish chute of an Ironman and hearing over the load speakers, “Bertrand Dussert, YOU’RE AN IRONMAN!”

Another in a 2014 guest column series which builds on the one in 2009 where 50+ had written about how science /tech has evolved their hobby/interest.

This time it is Don Berk who I met when he was Creative Director at Gartner. Don introduced electronic visual support, special effects, multimedia, and even theatre to our presentations. It was at that time that Don saw a need for coaching and refined his skills. He had done this as writer, producer, and director of his video production company. The common thread in all these diverse videos was the engaging and persuasive performance of each company’s spokesperson. Here he writes about something he is even better at – his paintings and his sculptures

Few of my recent acquaintances (over the last couple of decades) knew it but my Master’s from NYU was in Art with a primary focus in painting. When my new girlfriend first visited my home, she asked where I got the cool art. When she learned I did it, she encouraged me to enter Donna: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman in the Bucks County Sculpture show. I was pleased it was accepted and surprised when it was an award winner.

After a stint as a working artist in New York, family needs took precedent and I put away my paints. Work and painting or work and physical activity? My daughters thought I should paint until I asked them, “Do you want me to still be ambulatory when you have kids?” They quickly said, “Go exercise, dad.”

I had a video production company, and when one of my clients, Gartner, made me an offer I couldn’t refuse, I became their creative director. Perhaps the biggest draw was the collegiality of these brilliant analysts, and the chance to learn about IT from them. I saw a need to coach our presenters and began developing my speaker seminars and workshops that I still constantly refine and use today. After all, I had experience pulling performances out of corporate reps for a wide variety of companies, most of whom were Gartner clients. The ability to provide instant feedback via video is an enormous aid. My speakers don’t need to take my word for it; I can show them what I see, and the lessons stick.

I moved to Pennsylvania in 2002 and worked as a communications consultant and speaker coach I was plugged in even more. During stints as Director of Communications for a couple of global pharmaceutical companies, I had to be accessible. The 24/7 thing can become addictive. Now, if I leave home without my cell phone, I feel naked.

But it’s exhausting to have no alone time and I needed a way to recharge. With one daughters out of college and the other a senior, I set up my studio in one of their bedrooms and I’m at it again. I sit in my studio, plug in my iPod, and dance around my canvass, listening for it to speak to me. I have a reminder sign that proclaims “Movement Defines Me & My ART”. I hear my creation tell me which colors to use and where, what positive and negative space to emphasize, what movement to accentuate? I may sit silently for more than an hour, contemplating the painting’s current state and what nourishment it needs to grow to completion. And upon completion, I live with it for a while to see if it’s truly finished. It’s my respite from the digital 24/7 world. My painting stays old school and I stay sane, or at least relatively so. Unplug to recharge!

Tech takes over, though, when a piece is finished. Although I show and sell most of my completed pieces at Rich Timmons Gallery in Doylestown, folks also reach me through my web site, (although it’s hard to appreciate a piece that’s 48” x 36” or even larger in a snapshot). When a work I’m particularly fond of is finished, I first turn it over to Graphic Imaging. They digitally scan (much like a high resolution copier) and prepare it for reproduction as a Giclee.

Over a series of sessions, I direct the finished resolution based on desired brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, etc. I may even alter it from the original if I decide that I prefer that version. This super high quality reproduction is often printed on canvas and mimics the original so closely that it’s hard to tell one from the other. Clients can buy an affordable high quality reproduction in whatever size they desire and the original remains for me or one of my high rolling patrons of the arts.

What pleases me most is the act of painting, but I must admit that I love hearing people talk about my paintings and what they see in them when they don’t know I’m the artist. I take pride that the paintings are great companions over time and people are always discovering new elements in them.

Another in a 2014 guest column series which builds on the one in 2009 where 50+ had written about how science /tech has evolved their hobby/interest.

This time it is Katie Nittler, with a long career in technology business development and marketing. Here she describes her passion for “fusion” gardening design – English and California blend.

What can I say, I’m English; gardening is in my blood!

When I was young I lived in a cottage in the middle of my grandparents’ nursery garden in deepest Shropshire: rural England at its best. By the time I moved to California in 1998 I had designed and planted four gardens; my friends and family would bring cuttings when they came to visit and leave with them too. It was where I could create and learn at the same time – it was and still is a shared interest with multi generations of my family as well as my best friend, Gail.

Gail and I worked together at HP in the early 90s in marketing and while I continued in high tech, she went back to school to do landscape design.

Landscaping in California was a completely different experience as it was hard to reproduce the passion and collaboration that naturally exists in England. In 2000 we bought a new house in Walnut Creek with a sizeable plot of land that was an empty canvas for design. I worked with a local landscape designer to marry my knowledge with what California had to offer. Citrus was‘exotic’ to me, and my slow growing English roses and Wisteria grew at an amazing rate with the non-stop sunshine (and plenty of irrigation of course). Gail and my grandmother (now 92 and a compendium of plants) critiqued the plans when I carried them back to England and over the next ten years my garden grew.

Then it was time for a new challenge. We bought a house on an acre of land overlooking Mount Diablo; built in the 1960s the house (and property) had never been modernized. The first phase was the house remodeling and landscaping the front of the house – it followed a similar path to before with me hand carrying my designs to the UK for validation and ideas.

After ten years gardening in California, I was fairly self-sufficient but knew the rest of the project (the Back Forty) was a far bigger task.

Almost 2/3 an acre; a 9’ deep kidney shaped pool that was no longer heated; collapsing outbuildings; 60’ palm trees well past their prime and a division between the garden and field that I wanted to remove to create a more integrated space.

None of the local landscape designers understood what I was trying to achieve – you really needed to be English and have grown up walking through acres of gardens! I am really not sure any of them knew of Capability Brown , let alone Piet Oudolf (an amazing Dutch landscape designer if you are interested!).

Starting with the end in mind we created our wish list for the property: a modern pool; pool house and outbuildings; herb garden; sport court; larger vegetable garden. Somewhere along the way we added a bocce court, a fire-pit, vines and a fountain. I wanted to compliment the Spanish revival style of our remodeled house, which meant researching different planting styles.

Here is where technology has really changed how I work – the difference from ten years ago was the web. It has transformed how I have been able to drive this project. Ten years ago I did not even send emails to Gail, let alone share photographs and designs. I wanted my English landscaping friend to help me and while it was still important to walk the property the use of Skype and wireless on the property gave us instant access and Shutterfly albums of photos gave Gail the chance to review the property. Houzz has been a great resource for research into the style– I use it to identify what I liked, get input from my husband and Gail. I found that it is also a great way of communicating with our contractors – show them vs tell them!

Technology does not replace the fun of collaborating in person and Gail & I spent two separate weeks working and reiterating the planting plans – those garden designs have now been integrated into the formal CAD plans for the pool and out buildings.

The sport court, bocce and vegetable garden are also in overall plan. This is now the blue print to manage multiple contractors from.

It is important to me to be able to collaborate across the ‘pond’. Technology has allowed iterations and ideas on design to pass between California and England and gradually I have been achieving the vision for our property. The planting is still to come and resources on line allow for better visualization for that perfect color and shape.

It is still work in progress but 10 grape vines are planted along the Bocce Court, bare root English roses are waiting to be planted and there are fruit trees (including plenty of citrus!) already planted in the orchard.

Another in a 2014 guest column series which builds on the one in 2009 where 50+ had written about how science /tech has evolved their hobby/interest.

This time it is my fellow Gartner alum, Jim Sinur, Founder and CEO of Flueresque, a Business Process Management consulting firm established to help organizations attain innovative and excellent processes.

I have been involved in technology since my teen years and recently I have found ways to combine my loves for art and technology.

Though I had some drawing skills, I did not dive into art until 2009. I pursued two tracks in art. One was traditional painting (oils, acrylics and water color) and the other was digital arts.

The digital art form that I first pursued was a math generated art called fractals. An example of that is the “Star Stream”below.

These fractals are generated by math formulas with additional math formulas used for tweaking, in combination, to create unique art.

I, then, have them burned on metal that creates a vibrant effect. While fractals are the most popular of my art forms, I have branched out into hand crafted digital art pieces such as the example that follows entitled “Toppling Tops”

This piece and others were created on my MAC driven Cintiq Wacom tablet pictured below. My son, Andrew, who works at Disney, put together the digital portion of my studio where I experiment with all sorts of artistic effects.

While I do local shows, from time to time as pictured above, I sell most of my pieces through my web site and I use my art to highlight selected posts on my business process related blog.

I have art pieces in private collections in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, LA, Munich, North Carolina, Paris and Vancouver. Recently I have had pieces purchased as commercial art for decorating business offices.

In addition, I have placed art into contests with some success. One of my fractals placed in 2011 Artist Magazine, which was a thrill. Also I had a piece selected - “Sunset Mountain” below - for “Art Takes Times Square” in 2012. I also was privileged to be selected for the 2013 Story of the Creative in New York where three pieces were honored.

While it seems like there has been some commercial and professional recognition, the real important personal benefit revolves around pleasing people and reaching their hearts with my images. This truly humbles me and none of it would have happened without technology and taking advantage of my technical design skills.

Another in a 2014 guest column series which builds on the one in 2009 where 50+ had written about how science/tech has evolved their hobby/interest.

This time it is Robert Lavigne, who goes as Your Social Business Mentor and provides media services through his firm The Digital Grapevine. I first met Robert in Toronto on my book tour for The New Polymath and have always been impressed with his continued experimentation in different forms of expression

I am of a generation that grew up watching Saturday Morning Cartoons, Daytime Soap Operas, Six O'Clock News, Prime Time Sitcoms, and Late Night Live Entertainment. The concept of broadcast television was ingrained in our psyche at a very early age. Our “boob tube” entertainment consisted of only three channels, and a remote control that involved getting up from the couch and manually turning the dial.

How much has changed since that era. We now live in a world where the average television consumer has hundreds of channels, weekend long Netflix marathons, live streaming over the Internet, and of course the vast amount of torrent-based media available for download at the click of a hyperlink.

We live in a world where “Content is King” (Context is Where the Real Value is but I digress) and the fundamental reality of the “Attention Economy” is putting a wedge into the concept of scheduled broadcasting. The simple truth is that we could stop creating content today, and we would have all the media we would need to sustain our edutainment needs until our dying breath. Having said all this, we are living in a world where the operational and infrastructural requirements to broadcast media to a worldwide audience are nearly zero.

Imagine ten years ago, you would approach the IT department with the following request. “We are in need of an infrastructure that can provide us with text messaging, event calendaring, document sharing, information searching, application hosting, news aggregation, geographic localization, AND can also provide us with real time collaboration over live to air video conferencing with archival capabilities.” How much would that Request for Proposal/Information/Quotation/Qualifications/Tender translate to? A Million Dollars? A Billion Dollars? A Trillion Dollars? Simply put, your IT budget would negate any chance of your organization being able to convert that investment into a return for a considerable timeframe. That was the reality of the Broadcasting Corporations (CBC, ABC, NBC, etc) that ruled the airwaves. They owned the infrastructure they built, and as such needed to gain a Return On their Investment of satellites, cameras, talent, administration, and broadcasting facilities.

With the advent of Google, all your Millions, Billions, and Trillions can now be redirected towards actually creating worthwhile content instead of worthless stock options on the next hot start-up destined to fail (circa 2000). Not only has the cost to implement this desired technology shifted to a freemium-based model, but the returns on said infrastructure are now shareable between those who own the platforms and those who provide the content for said platforms. Recently, YouTube (aka Google) announced the repurposing of Howard Hughes’ legendary 41,000-square foot Spruce Goose hangar to become a $25 million dollar a year studio for emerging videographers and online content producers. The availability of such studio space for non-Broadcasting Corporations clients sends a clear signal that the norm is no longer our reality.

So what does all of the above mean to my Technology and my Passion? I currently live in a hard pressed city called Brantford, Ontario. Some may know it as the birthplace of the Great One, Wayne Gretzky (look up Hockey for those who are not Canadian). For me however, I know it as the Telephone City. Brantford (Canada) is where Alexander Graham Bell (an American) successfully made the first long distance phone call to Paris. Now in reading this, you may be thinking…WOW…Paris, France. Nope, the first ever long distance phone call was from Brantford, Ontario to Paris, Ontario (a mere 10 minute drive by horseless carriage).

From my modern basement in Brantford, I have hosted multiple Live to Air Hangouts (The 42+1 Interview Series all over the globe. To make my evolutionary point, I have performed multiple live to air video interviews with people in Paris, France. Old Alex would have a stroke at the very idea that I was able to perform such a feat at such a great distance for such a low price (cost of my laptop and wifi). Those interviews in many ways are the basis for my passion. I love to learn and I am willing to stretch the globe for this knowledge.

Google has provided me the means to perform such fantastic feats via a web browser, while many in the world are still struggling to get consistent electricity. Both Google and YouTube have complimentary Live to Air capabilities (YouTube refers to them as Live Events and Google refers to them as Hangouts on Air). The cost to leverage this technology is the equivalent of the cost of meeting a person over coffee. In both cases, multiple camera sources are possible via their streaming capabilities.

Some people may be confused by this, so let me explain, a social profile on a hangout is a camera feed. You can easily have multiple social profiles mimic a camera angle (or in the case of Live Events which can actually have multiple cameras per profile). It is simply breathtaking that as a child, I would be watching shows like Saturday Night Live and be amazed that comedians in New York could perform their multi-camera skits for the world to see in real time. It is a lesser known fact that Phil Hartman (of SNL and Simpson fame) spent a portion of his childhood in Brantford, Ontario.

So as a testament to Phil, I decided to take my passion for Live to Air Broadcasting and share it with those in Brantford who struggle to have a voice in a post-industrial complex. In 2014, I launched a side-project called Poptics TV . With a standard office space, some backdrops, a couple of web cameras, and some imagination, I am opening up my own Google/YouTube Studio right here in Brantford. I have opened the door to those in my community to become Poptics Players and broadcast their message to the world in real time. In essence, Poptics TV is a three stage video production of a bunch of people like you and I wanting to improve their online video content and public speaking skills. We record our segments to DSLR, but have the Web Cameras running Live to Air while we record (think Behind the Scenes). The Lower Quality Live to Air footage is available in real time. A Higher Quality version of the Live to Air gets released later in the week. The Awesome Quality of the studio shoot gets released later in the month. The goal of Poptics TV is to not only improve the presentation quality of the Poptic Players, but to improve the broadcast quality of the Live to Air over the course of multiple attempts (read months) and various technologies (e.g. Wirecast for YouTube). Content is hosted on the Poptics TV YouTube Channel via Playlists and on the Poptics TV Google+ Page.

Fan favourites include Ron's Unwritten Book Reviews and Richard's Musical Moment. Current and upcoming segments include Ray’s Financial Investment Advice, Shannon’s Intern of Light, and Bill's Guitar Skills. Additional Live to Air Interview Segments with Book Authors, Industry Experts, and Interesting People will fall under my Getting to Know segment (originally started as a podcast series/ Not only will this Live to Air technology fuel my passion, but it will provide an avenue for others in my community to leverage it to find their passion. Stay tuned for Season One of Poptics TV (All for Nothing…and Nothing for All).

Another in a 2014 guest column series which builds on the one in 2009 where 50+ had written about how science/tech has evolved their hobby/interest.

This time it is Giovanni Rodriguez, a business consultant and blogger for Forbes, and an avid walker, talker, and observer of public life. He is co-author of The Pax Urbana, an upcoming book about the application of peace technology for the sustainable development of urban environments.

Back in the 80s -- in my final years as a resident of New York City -- I rented an apartment at the very tip of Upper Manhattan. Turned out to be a big mistake for me, and it marked the beginning of the end of my romance with the city. For what made city life -- New York City life -- so appreciable, had suddenly become elusive. I was cut off, in a number of ways. The most profound way: I no longer had walkable city streets at my doorstep.

I did not realize this about New York until I made my move far uptown: a walkable street is one of the things that define city life, and not just for me.

I was reminded of that on a trip back recently. On a Friday afternoon, I was scheduled to meet up with someone I am interviewing for a business story this Spring. It was a cold day, but the sun had just come out, and she suggested we go for a walk. We paced the streets for a bit, but the target was a route inside Central Park, in the 70s, in the region just below the Great Lawn, with the storybook Belvedere Castle overlooking it.

It was an interesting choice. Background: before I moved to California. and left New York City for good, Central Park had become one of my destinations on long runs that I would take from Upper Manhattan. But I never walked it very much. At the time, running through Central Park was safer. But because walking and hiking is again a big part of my life -- I have picked it up again in suburban Silicon Valley, with the assistance of a smartphone -- I welcomed the opportunity to do it in NYC in a less urban context and see what if felt like.

As on many walks, I got the opportunity to reflect on the unique quality of the setting. But it was not Central Park itself that kept our attention, but the conversation and the context. If you are walking alone in the city -- whether it's in a park or on busy streets -- you leave yourself open to the sounds of the city -- cars, constructions, the conversations of strangers. But when you are with someone, you leave yourself open to one another. I wrote about how this works in remote settings, in a piece for Forbes, where the scene was a hiking party on Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, California. I coined a term -- social archaeology -- to describe what happens when you get to know someone on a trail. And, yes, the smartphone can be a wonderful aid in checking out the numerous historical notes and connections that come up randomly, assuming your companions are OK with the tech interruptions/assistance, and you are within range of a good signal.

What was different about the jaunt on Friday was that it happened in a city. That you can enrich your life in an urban setting with such a simple routine is not just useful information, but a critical clue for the future of cities. The purpose of this blog is to collect and reflect on the things that can make city life more peaceful and sustainable as the world's population continues its march -- unstoppably -- toward urbanization. Let's put walking and talking front and center of the urban experience. And let's make New York City and Central Park one of the case studies -- what's working and isn't working -- on walking and talking. Not only because it's a walking city (it is). And not only because the diversity and history of the city and its people provide so much material for social archaeology (I took several long walks on my recent NY visit, and Google Maps helped me navigate the journeys with extreme precision and context). More, I am interested in something else that New York City is known for: the home of psychotherapy. My companion on Friday is a psychiatrist who happens to be part of a movement -- positive psychology, which focuses more on the work of promoting mental wellness than on the analysis of mental illness -- that could very well transform the business of psychotherapy and make it more accessible to the millions of people who call this city home.

And the walk we took on Friday is a fitting metaphor for that transformation. When I left the city, several decades ago, the physical position for psychotherapy was supine on a sofa, eyes averted from the therapist. Today, the posture is upright, in motion, alongside a companion. It used to be about the "talking cure," and there will always be a market for that. But now we also have the "walking cure," and the market for that and other hacks on urban life is bigger. Writer/critic Vivian Gornick -- a famous walker of the streets of New York City -- once wrote: "the streets are filled with people escaping the prison sentence of personal history into the promise of an open destiny." Peace in the city starts with each of its people. A new brand of psychology from New York City -- mindful of the past, but leaning toward the future, and assisted, thoughtfully, with new technologies -- might help.

Three great walks in NYC. Bring a friend.

Brooklyn Bridge. You can get on the bridge in Manhattan starting at a small park adjacent to the Manhattan Municipal Building. Walk it back and forth. It's probably the most spectacular view of New York. Do not forget your camera.

Central Park, Belvedere Castle.Enter the park on East 79th Street, and let Google Maps on your phone be your guide.Wander around the circular paths for a while before you get to the castle.Best view of The Great Lawn in one of the greatest urban parks in the world.

The Great White Way 2.0: Never mind what I said earlier about Upper Manhattan. It needs to be experienced in the context of everything else. Take the 1 Train to 207th Street, the last stop in Manhattan, and walk entire the length of the island, all the way to South Ferry. No better way to take in the city in all its grit and glory. Using Google Maps, use Broadway as your most constant road, but allow yourself to enjoy 5th Avenue below 14th Street until Washington Square, and Thompson Street below the park. When you get to the bottom of Manhattan, take the ferry to Staten Island. Nice way to cool the soles of your feet. When you get back to Manhattan you'll feel as though you immigrated there.